


your touch like a happy pill

by piperreynas



Series: it's always your move [1]
Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians & Related Fandoms - All Media Types, Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Alternate Universe - Human, Angst, F/F, Friends to Lovers, Pining, these girls are v soft and v gay and v tired
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-18
Updated: 2017-06-18
Packaged: 2018-11-15 19:07:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,213
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11237328
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/piperreynas/pseuds/piperreynas
Summary: in which reyna befriends drew, falls in love with her, and then leaves. a prequel to "treading water in the wishing well."





	your touch like a happy pill

"Hey!" Reyna drops her book, startled and a little spooked by the loud sudden noise, and glances around the shelves warily. "You're Reyna, right?" someone asks.

Reyna frowns. "Yes...?"

The other girl nods, satisfied, and steps forward. "I'm Drew," she says, holding out her right hand. The other hand is holding a stack of paper.

Reyna studies them a little curiously before taking the other girl's hand. "Hello, Drew."

Drew smiles and hands her a piece of paper out of the stack. Reyna takes a closer look and realizes that it's actually a card, printed on very expensive paper. "It's an invitation," Drew explains, "to my back-to-school party."

Reyna frowns. "Why would you invite me? I don't know anyone."

"Well that's the point of a back-to-school party, honey," Drew says sweetly, studying her in a way that Reyna isn't entirely unwelcome to. "To get to know people. So that's a yes right?" Reyna starts to form a carefully worded refusal but Drew who somehow predicts it just chirps, "Great! See you there!" and strides out of the library.

Reyna finds the house on the day of the party without any trouble; it's quite difficult not to notice the house, what with it being decorated the way it is, all glaringly bright lights and extravagant everything. She goes inside awkwardly, gets herself a glass of water as she watches Drew step slowly down her spiral staircase and then leaves after she's finished it.

.

.

.

"Hi," Drew says, sliding into the seat next to her the week after her party like it's a habit. The pink streaks she put in her hair for the occasion still haven't disappeared, Reyna notices, and she's still got apples painted onto her fingernails.

Reyna's surprised it took her this long to show up. "Drew," she greets, more than a little amused.

"I didn't see you at my party, last week," Drew says, giving her a pointed look over a forkful of cafeteria spaghetti. "I cannot believe you would bail on me."

Reyna snorts. "First off, I wouldn't have been bailing on you even if I didn't show because I never actually promised you I'd go-"

"Technicalities," Drew says dismissively. "Or rather, excuses," she corrects, narrowing her eyes jokingly at Reyna.

"-and second, I stayed long enough to order a drink and then finish it," Reyna continues, raising an eyebrow over her bottled water. "So _techincally_ , I didn't bail on you."

Drew gives her a surprised look. "You ordered a drink?" Reyna nods bemusedly. "Huh," Drew says skeptically, giving her a once-over. "I never pegged you for an alcohol kind of gal. Which drink?"

"That's for me to know and for you to try and find out," she says, knowing exactly how Drew will react. Drew tilts her head, puzzled. "Now if there's nothing else, I'd like to get back to my lunch," Reyna continues, pointedly turning back to her tray.

Drew raises her hands in mock surrender. "Alright," she says grabbing her tray, "I can take a hint. See you in Physics, sweetie."

.

.

.

Reyna walks in to English II five minutes into class and sees total chaos. Her peers have begun talking over each other for reasons that are beyond her and it's so loud that she can't even hear herself think. In the middle of it all, Mrs. Albright stands with her hands in her hair, trying desperately to get everyone to sit down long enough for her to continue class and yet somehow Drew Tanaka is sitting by windows, touching up her lipstick, seemingly unaffected by any of it. Reyna walks up to her, bewildered. "What are you doing all the way over here?" she asks.

Drew barely looks up. "What do you mean?" She moves on to her eyeliner. Reyna doesn't answer immediately, distracted by the fluid movement of Drew's hand, the sweep of Drew's eyelashes as she blinks.

A few seconds of silence pass before Drew rases a questioning eyebrow, jolting Reyna out of her quiet study. "Oh! I meant...why aren't you...y'know, over there?" She gestures vaguely at the throng of students surrounding their teacher. Drew snorts and gives her a look that speaks for itself:  _w_ _hy do you think_ _?_ Reyna, having no answer, just shrugs and takes the seat next to Drew.

"I will call all of your parents!" Mrs. Albright threatens in the background to no avail as Drew checks her nails, "I will fail all of you!" The class settles down at that and Reyna hears someone let out a relieved sigh. "Now, as I was saying, we're going to begin a summative project on the works of Shakespeare," the teacher conitnues, pausing as the entire class groans. "You will be assigned a partner, if you so choose."

Reyna, who realizes there's no way she will get this done without a partner, is paired up with Drew. Over the course of the two months that they work together, Reyna visits Drew's house ten times, and deciding that's it probably good for her to have at least one good friend; recognizing that Drew needs one as well, slowly begins to tell Drew about Puerto Rico and Hylla.

.

.

.

"Hylla totally has a girlfriend," Drew says conversationally, some months later.

Reyna nearly overturns her bowl of chips. "What? Who?"

"Thalia Grace. Jason's emo-punk-goth older sister."

Reyna frowns. "Emo, punk, and goth aren't the same thing. Besides," she adds, seeing Drew's expression. "That doesn't matter right now. How do you know? Why hasn't she told me? How long-"

Drew makes a face. "At this point, I'm not sure you want answers to those questions." Reyna sticks her tongue out at her. "I know because I saw them together. When I asked why-"

"Wait you talked to Hylla?" Reyna asks, sitting up suddenly.

"Will you let me finish?"

Reyna slouches again. "Sorry."

"When I _asked_ ," Drew continues, giving Reyna a pointed look, "she said she didn't want to tell you because of something that happened in Puerto Rico." Reyna scowls darkly at this. "To be fair it's only been going on a couple of weeks. She probably wanted to wait until she knew it was serious." Reyna hums. There's a few moments of an expectant sort of silence, and then Drew carefully asks, "Do you want one?"

"What, a girlfriend?" Reyna asks. Drew nods. Reyna ponders this for a moment. She hasn't really thought about relationships yet or questioned her sexuality at all, but she supposes she'd be open to a girlfriend, someday. She says as much, and maybe it's just wishful thinking or her subconcious making shit up but she swears Drew's smile grows brighter in response.

.

.

.

"Order!" Drew shouts, striking the podium with her gavel repeatedly until the chatter subsides. "We need to start getting things sorted out now if we have any hope of finishing on time for prom."

Reyna looks down into her mug mournfully, realizing that this is going to be yet another long meeting.

Matt, the captain of the mock trial team rolls his eyes. "There's no need for you to be such a hardass, Princess."

Reyna glares at him and considers telling him off, but before she can, Drew smiles and calls out, "And there's no need for you to be an idiotic self-centered dick, but here you are." Reyna snorts audibly into her mug as she takes a small sip, and sighs internally wondering how much of this meeting is going to be devoted to Drew and the jocks hurtling insults back and forth. Drew raises an eyebrow at Reyna but the corners of her mouth quirk upwards letting Reyna know that this is all for show, so she figures it's okay to grin and raise an eyebrow back at Drew in response.

The chess club president, Leah, raises her hand timidly. "I mean he does have a point. There isn't even a theme yet." Matt leers at her and Leah flips him off in response.

Drew narrows her eyes at her. "I realize that, but regardless, it is still better to have the committees hammered out beforehand."

"That, and it keeps everyone busy," Reyna mutters quietly. Drew shoots her a look.

"Got it?" Drew asks, in a tone that implies she's not really looking for a verbal reply. Everyone nods slowly. "Okay," Drew says, "gather 'round." Everyone shuffles forward tiredly with muffled groans. After she's made sure that Reyna isn't dozing off in her corner and that everyone else is attentive enough, she begins rattling off potential committee names. The squabbling crescendoes immediately after she stops talking and serves to pull a disgruntled Reyna fully out of her impromptu nap. Having nothing else to do, she watches annoyedly as everyone coralls themselves into groups and then begins to fight within their committees.

Drew throws her hands up in the air annoyedly and steps down off her podium. "What the fuck are you doing?" she snaps as everyone grows even louder. Reyna sighs, realizing that this is going to take even longer than she thought it would.

*

"Right," Drew breathes, nearly an hour later, stepping back onto her podium, bringing the gavel down again and giving everyone a deceptively bright smile. Reyna scowls. "See you on the 15th!" she chirps, grabbing Reyna's wrist and throwing the door open.

The two of them collapse onto the subway and sink into the hard plastic chairs. Drew scrubs a hand over her eyes, waits for Reyna to collapse into the cool plastic chairs and leans over so her head rests in Reyna's lap. "God this is exhausting," Drew breathes, closing her eyes.

Reyna frowns and lets her hand slip into Drew's silky black locks. "You can't keep doing this to yourself. Maybe you should drop a few clubs."

Drew shakes her head a little and lets her head droop sideways. "Can't," she sighs. "Need 'em for the college apps."

"You have to, Dee. Look, it's only six and you're so tired you're slurring your words."

Drew smiles sleepily. "How d'you know that I didn't sneak in some vodka?"

Reyna sighs. " _Drew._ "

"I'll be fine, Rey," Drew says, fumbling around for her hand. "Promise. Just a few more months. Besides I'm not the only one at fault. You've been walking funny all day and I saw your plan for next year. You need to slow down too."

Reyna presses a sleepy kiss onto Drew's forehead. "Just a few more months," she echoes. Drew hums sleepily in response. The man sitting across from them gives them a sympathetic look.

.

.

.

"You and Drew are dating, aren't you?" Lacy asks as soon as Reyna walks up to her locker the next day. Reyna doesn't know why she didn't see this one coming. It's a question everyone asks, sooner or later, and Drew's relatives have always been more perceptive than most about things like this, although Lacy's always been a little more careful that the others.

If Lacy had been asking about Jason or Percy or Leo, Reyna would have answered with a firm "No," because her interest in boys has always been purely aesthetic in nature, and also because Percy's been pining after Annabeth since the beginning of time, Leo and Jason aren't nearly as discreet as they think they are, and Reyna doesn't want any part of their drama. But here's the thing about her and Drew: she doesn't really know what they are at this point. The lines have always been a little blurred with them, even more so nowadays to the point that Reyna isn't even sure there _are_ lines anymore.

So Reyna shrugs noncommitally in response and Lacy smiles, taking that as a yes, just like Mitchell and Katie and Miranda did.

"I knew it!" Lacy squeals, louder than her usual soft alto. "You two are going to be good for each other, I can feel it." Reyna gives her a bemused smile because she doesn't really know what that means and Lacy leaves with a smile, presumably to go and pester Drew.

Drew says nothing about it the next morning, and so neither does Reyna, figuring it's best to let everyone believe what they will. Cliché as it may be, it doesn't matter to Reyna as long as she has Drew.

.

.

.

"This is the stupidest thing I've ever done," Reyna declares, leaning against the table, grabbing another glass of punch. She waves the glass in the air regally, as if making a silent toast, and then downs it in one go.

Drew snorts. "First of all, that's a lie," she says. "Trying to date Jason while he was with Leo was the stupidest thing you'ever done. Second, stupidest isn't even a word."

Reyna is already pleasantly buzzed from the punch, which she spiked herself citing necessity, and it shows in her recently acquired theatricality and loud...everything. She fakes an affronted look. "First of all, you can't blame me for subscribing to compulsive heterosexuality, and this is still in the top three. And second, stupidest is a word. Google said so."

Drew rolls her eyes. "Fair enough." She takes a small sip of her punch, bites her lip and looks over at Reyna. Anxiety twists in the pit of Drew's stomach and want makes her toes curl and her cheeks flush. "Want to get out of here then?"

Reyna's mouth curls into a slow, suprised smirk. "Come now Drew. It would be kind of scandalous for you to leave after forcing the board into organizing everything," she says as austerely as she can manage. There's a glint in her eyes that suggests that she means the exact opposite.

Drew half smiles. "It would, wouldn't it?" she asks softly, slowly, and lets Reyna decide if she wants to cross the thin line they've drawn in the sand for themselves.

Reyna walks out from behind the punch bowl slowly, eyes hooded, watching Drew like she's trying to make sure she's real (Drew can't blame her; she's fairly certain she's been holding her breath since she saw Reyna) and makes her way into a secluded hallway. Drew follows and as soon as they're both out of line of sight of the others, Reyna sloppily pushes her up against the wall and just stands there, slowly inhaling.

Drew can't even do that much. "Reyna," she rasps.

"Drew," Reyna echoes, seemingly unaffected.

"This isn't a good idea. I-my dad..." She trails off not knowing what to say.

Reyna sighs. "I know," she says regretfully. She steps even closer and lets her breath wash over Drew's chin. "But we'll be fine. I mean, we're not doing anything. Just standing."

Drew exhales shakily. "Just standing," she repeats.

Reyna ducks her head and grins against her collarbone. "That's right."

They stay there for another thiry minutes until Drew's dad texts to say he's outside. They slowly step away from each other and then Drew walks out to the parking lot and Reyna finds her bike. They don't talk about it the next day or the next or the next.

.

.

.

"I got in," Drew breathes indredulously, laughing a little. "I got in!" Reyna squeezes her shoulder, grinning, and moves to open her own letter with shaking hands. When she does nothing but stare, Drew sighs and snatches the letter out of her hands, reads the first few lines, and then beams. "You got in too!" She laughs even louder and jumps up and down a few times. "We're going to the same college and we'll live together and take all the same classes and-"

"Don't get ahead of yourself," Reyna says, not as sternly as intended. "My scholarship could be revoked-"

"-and if it _did_ get revoked, which it won't, I'd pay for you in a heartbeat," Drew finishes, taking Reyna's hand. "We're almost there, Rey. You've got to stop worrying."

Reyna holds her gaze and nods. "We're going to live together," she says slowly, trying to convince herself this is real as Drew's grin grows even wider, "and we're probably not picking all the same classes-"

She lets out a loud shriek as Drew cuts her off with a throw pillow and pins her against the mattress. "Killjoy," Drew says grinning, and then letting out an affronted yell and Reyna hits her in the side of the head with another pillow and runs.

.

.

.

Everything falls apart in the second semester of sophmore year. Reyna goes almost catatonic for a week after she finds out her uncle is dead and it's all Drew can do not to pull all of her hair out by the roots as Reyna grieves for a man she ran away from at the tender age of ten. She goes to all of her classes and stares out the window instead of taking notes, while Drew watches worriedly and finishes every essay she's been assigned regardless of when it's due.

At the end of the month, Reyna sits Drew down and in the first moment of clarity she's had since she recieved the news, she says, "I have to go back."

Drew blinks once, twice, three times as her brain struggles to process Reyna's words. "Go back," she repeats. "Go back to Puerto Rico?"

Reyna nods. "He didn't have anyone but Hylla and I. We have to go back to do the funeral and take care of the property."

Drew nods too. "Okay. But you...you're coming back right?"

"I don't think we can, Dee," Reyna says. Her voice breaks on Drew's name and her stoic expression crumples as tears beginning to form in her eyes.

Drew shakes her head vehemently. "You have to come back," she says, now on the verge of falling apart. "You _have_ to."

"Oh Drew," Reyna says, and she's crying now, but as quietly as she can so as not to upset Drew. "I can't," she repeats.

"No," Drew says, shaking her head again, "You're coming back." There are tears running down both their faces, but she scarcely notices. "I won't do this without you, I'll quit too and come back-"

" _Drew_ ," Reyna says, taking Drew's hands even as her own hands shake. "You have to keep going. Promise me." Drew avoids her gaze until Reyna leans her forehead against Drew's, forces her to look. " _Promise_ ," she says, and Drew, who has always been helpless in the face of her gaze, nods.

*

Reyna packs everything into two suitcases a few days later as Drew watches detatchedly. To their credit, they only begin to break after Reyna locks the door to her dorm. "You can't go," Drew says helplessly, holding on to Reyna's shirt as if to physically make her stay. "I won't let you."

Reyna only smiles shakily and gently laces their fingers together. "I'm so sorry," she says in response, pressing a kiss to her cheek. The dorm attendant clears her throat awkwardly. Drew chokes back a sob and wraps Reyna in a desperate hug, takes a minute to breathe her in, jasmines and hot chocolate. "I love you, Dee," she says.

"Love you too," Drew says, pressing her face into Reyna's shoulder. They stay like that for another minute until the dorm attendant clears her throat again. Reyna pulls away and Drew presses one last kiss to her forehead and then Reyna turns and walks resolutely to the office and Drew collapses against the door, fighting tears.

**Author's Note:**

> oh look, more angst!  
> +please comment/kudos/bookmark  
> +please read part 2 and do the same  
> +find me on tumblr! (url: @piperreynas)


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